Assumption College, Lerdsin Hospital, and the Rare Stone Museum.

Lumpoo called this morning from Fairbanks Alaska. It was great to hear from her. It sounds like she is doing well. I sent her the URL for Richard's web log on Thai food.

We went to Lerdsin Hospital today to visit Nuke. We went with Juke. We drove a different way and I got to see the absurd empty Sky Train track across the Chao Phraya river at Taksin station. If there was ever a symbol of dysfunctional government that is it. I guess there is some kind of fight over who should control the Sky Train, and because of that a perfectly empty place on a bridge exists for the Sky Train. It is beyond comprehension how a government could not get itself together to get the Sky train across the river. Anyway for more details see 2Bangkok.com. It really is unbelievable though.

After visiting for awhile Juke, Jit, and I went for a walk. We went to a Wat that looked like a boat, we went to Assumption College and Cathedral. The Pope visited the cathedral in 2000. I can not figure out the relationship between Assumption University and Assumption College. The atmosphere is very different.

We walked up New Road to the Rare Stone Museum. The URL for the museum is www.rarestonemuseum.com. The museum really is interesting, many different kinds of stones, an ash tray museum, and an archive of contemporary documentation of Chinese news about the Thai Chinese community. There was even a long walk over stones to massage your feet. The most amazing thing though was the names on some of the stones.

I listed some of the more evocative titles:

Mushroom cloud of an A bomb
A competition of penises
Habitat in the deep white cloud
Expected rain in mountain
Looking short while on high
The blew lotus by autumnal wind
Eagle broken in Wings
Tempting snake out of the hole
The goat looks on the moon
Attacking the Pearl Harbour
The Monkey King and his Piggy Colleague
Sky-mending angel
Stone-holding forever
A stone displaying worldly pleasure
The remains of lotus listening to sing of rain
Flowers blooming on an iron tree

There were three floors to the museum. I was surprised by how interesting it was, but it was an idiosyncratic collection from a strong and interesting human. Most uniquely individual expressions of creativity are interesting. I do not think that a committee had a thing to do with the museum or the collection. It is worth a visit, I really liked it.

When we left we walked back to the hospital, we stopped and picked up some street food and purchased many items for the house dedication. There was a whole store to buy things for Buddhist ceremonies.

It is great walking with Juke, he knows the area well, he walks fast, and we are on the street. I took about 5 rolls of film using the Ricoh GR1v, the Ricoh GR21, and a Hexar AF. All the cameras worked well in a street shooting situation. I used color because I am almost out of my Kodak Black and White C41 film.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Nuke again and then Juke is taking us wandering in Chinatown. I have my cameras and film packed and ready to go. Downtown Bangkok is a great place to walk and explore, although the more we walked up New Road the more boring it became.

Nuke is doing well, she is still pretty sore. Hopefully she will be home soon.

I got a nice email from Stuart. He is in Laos but we can arrange a visit when he gets back. Stuart teaches computer and business courses at Bangkok University. He is a refugee from the Internet bubble collapse in the United States. His blog is always interesting. The URL for his blog is http://www.sgtowns.com/

Tomorrow photography in Chinatown!!

Odds and Ends

An odd sign I saw today. On the back of a car a decal saying "Drunk 24 Hours"

People fishing with fishing poles in a canal. Near STOU there is a fishing tackle shop, at least it looks that way from the road. The fishing gear looks like good spinning equipment.